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Community Corner

Is It Just Me? Part II

Continuing a Grouch-A-Thon

A previous column spoke of many events that proved that I am now an official grumpy person but with valid cause.

This week’s column reflects on a few more of these annoying moments that bring about my new found grouchiness.

  • Is it just me or do you, too, grit your teeth and roll your eyes when the lady at the checkout lane is told her total is $8.73, and only then does she open her purse and fumble for a five-dollar bill and three singles? Then she must locate exactly 73 cents and will embark with a Navy Deal Team mission to locate those three pennies. Just give the clerk nine freakin’ dollars, lady! They do have change in that draw. I’m aging here on line!

  • I bought a ticket for a concert at Madison Square Garden. Total price of the $80 ticket was $84. There was a $4 “facility charge.”

    I thought the $80 gave me access to the facility, so I called the Garden and spoke to a Director of Facilities. He told me that the extra fee covered the “maintenance of the facility.”

    Mind you, this had nothing to do with the fact that all the public water fountains were turned off, which led to patrons having to purchase the $4 bottle of water at the facility concession stands. I guess the $4 fee helped to pay the plumbers’ overtime to shut of the facility’s water fountains.
  • When I walk for my morning exercise in the park, there is a large sign telling dog owners to have their pets “leashed.” As a monster-sized German shepherd bounded over to me and started to sniff my shorts, I stopped and was motionless.

    The smiling owner assured me with an “Oh don’t worry, she’s very friendly.” I was tempted but bit my tongue and thought.” Well why don’t you follow the rules and leash your killer dog?”

    I glared at her as her pet veered away from me to search out new unsuspecting grumpy people to sniff.
  • When I go out to a diner with friends, the meal often comes with “soup and salad.” The server will take the first order and the soup choices as well as all five varieties of the salad dressing.

    Why are there always one or two people who then ask the patient server, “Now, what were those soups, again?” This is of course followed by, “and what are the dressings you have tonight?” Tonight? Tonight? This diner has had the same dressings since the first Clinton administration.
  • Have you sat patiently waiting to make a right turn at a stop sign and a car approaches going 15 miles per hour from the left? You wait and wait for the driver to pass you before you proceed and then at the last second the driver turns right ever so slowly without using his turn signal? Again, is it just me? 

My final grouchiness moment?

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My friend, Gary, just retuned from a European River Cruise. I asked how he liked it. “It’s OK, not like a lively Caribbean cruise with nightly shows and long white sandy beaches.”

He told me there was more of a mature, older crowd.

He went on to say that his tablemates were not happy with the food or the service.

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“To tell you the truth, he confided, after a week with them they were a bit grumpy and complained about almost everything.”

This gave me hope.

"So Gary,” do you have the phone number of this cruise line?" I asked.

I think I may have found my soul mates.

After 50 years I have come to think of Capt. West as my role model, my hero. My fellow grouch.

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